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Sport Nation
Whateley: Aussie squad for first Test makes "perfect sense"
Gerard Whateley • November 6th, 2025 1:42 pm
We’ve had 21 hours to absorb the Ashes squad and sample the reactions.
Taking a step back, I’d conclude the only group we second-guess more than the AFL is the Australian Selection Panel.
The 15-man squad made perfect sense.
It was predictable and consistent.
For the most part, that’s what you want at selection.
Yesterday wasn’t the day for wildcards and bolters… not ahead of an Ashes.
It seems we are quibbling most over a batter and bowler who won’t play.
Josh Inglis is the next in line for the middle order, having made a century on his Test debut in Sri Lanka, and Sean Abbott is routinely a squad bowler, an incumbent from the West Indies.
You and I might have gone elsewhere – I’d have gone with Mitch Marsh and Michael Neser – but this isn’t the core of the team… so it’s quibbling at the edges.
The other narrative that took hold yesterday was generational change.
This is a worthy conversation on any other day – but not yesterday.
Imagine if the selectors had veered radically to generational change for the Grand Final that is the Ashes.
That would have been madness.
There’s future planning to be done, but not when you’re about to confront England.
This isn’t about creating a team for the next decade or a new golden era – it’s about beating what’s in front of us over a five-Test series.
Pick what wins the head-to-head duel… the team best equipped to beat the 'Bazballers'.
There are some unfair criticisms of George Bailey and his crew.
What they have shown us is that they aren’t afraid to make the right change at the right time to alter the team’s fortunes.
Those decisions were critical last summer – a teenager into the Boxing Day Test was a match-winning decision, and the switch of all-rounders for Sydney was critical.
They have some credits against some of the oddly timed criticisms.
